I spent the day winterizing my new to me 1990 Prostar 190 with a Ford 351 and 1:1 transmission. Being my first time on this boat, I spent a few hours this morning searching the forum for recommendations, checklists, tips, tricks, etc… Most of all my questions were answered with some simple searches, but many of the explanations were lacking any “visual aids” to help me out so I snapped some photos of the process to help anyone in my situation down the road. First a picture of the new boat:

I started by adding Stabil to the fuel tank and topping it off (no pictures necessary….I hope). My 25 gallon tank took 10 fluid ounces total.

Next I ran the engine on the hose for about 15 minutes until the temp gauge hit 170 degrees. I used the bucket method commonly referenced on this forum. There are some pretty cool setups mentioned on this forum which I hope to copy later this week. For today my basic setup worked just fine.

I went to Lowes and bought a 5 gallon bucket, 4 feet of 1.25” ID clear plastic hose and a hose clamp. Many of the pictures I found this morning showed MC owners running their hose straight to the raw water intake on the bow side of the engine. Once I looked at my boat, I realized they were bypassing the transmission cooler. After some quick responses to my post here I decided to clamp my clear plastic hose to the hull side of the transmission cooler. I ran the other end to the 5 gallon bucket, wedging the hose between the handle and the outside of the bucket so it wouldn't move. I filled the bucket with the garden hose to the top, started the engine and watched it suck down the water while the garden hose refilled the bucket. NOTE: I had to shut the engine down 3 or 4 times as the engine took the water faster than the hose could refill the bucket.

With the engine warm, I drained the engine oil using the fitting that runs through the hull drain. I got 4.5 quarts out of the engine itself after 10 minutes of draining. I then removed the oil filter which held another .5 quart. I used a plastic bag over the filter while removing it which minimized the mess under the motor, a great tip I read on this forum. I replaced the filter with the appropriate WIX replacement (can't remember the part number but it cross referenced from the Napa Gold 1515). I added .5 a quart of Valvoline VR1 20W50 conventional oil to the filter and the other 4.5 quarts into the engine oil filler.

I moved onto the velvet drive transmission next. I used a "super sucker" to drain the old ATF out of the dipstick. I got exactly 2 quarts out. I assume the transmission was over-filled by the previous owner as the total capacity is 2 quarts and I believe you never get all the fluid out with a suction gun. I refilled the transmission with 1.75 quarts of Dexron III automatic transmission fluid.

Next I ran the boat back to 170 degrees on the hose and checked the transmission and engine oil levels. As expected, the transmission level was spot on and originally overfilled. The engine oil seemed slightly overfilled, I plan to check it before running next spring and adjust if necessary.

With the engine warm and filled with clean water, I opened the engine block drains (one on each the port and starboard side of the block). The brass T-handles were easy to spot so I didn't snap any pictures. The manifold drain plugs face the stern of the boat, there is one each manifold and are easy to find as well. I drove around the block a few times with the plugs open to completely drain all the water out. I re-installed the manifold drain plugs but as I realized in my next step I forgot to shut the engine block drain (a messy mistake for sure!).

Now that the block was relatively dry, I filled my bucket with 4 gallons of RV antifreeze and started the engine. The 4 gallons took less than a minute to be sucked into the motor after I closed the engine block drains. I didn't stop to take any pictures as its the same process as flushing the engine with water minus the hose. I stopped the engine and refilled the bucket with 2 more gallons of antifreeze.

After restarting the motor I fogged the carb until the engine choked itself out, leaving just under a half gallon of antifreeze in the bucket. There was antifreeze leaking out the exhaust so I'm going to assume it's full.

I then degreased and hosed out the bilge to clean up the small amount of antifreeze, engine oil and ATF that I spilled during the process. I took the boat for another few laps around the block to drain the bilge and am getting ready to detail the boat this weekend before putting it in storage.

I know there are some steps that I missed like replacing the fuel filter, changing the impeller and cleaning out the water separator. They all seem relatively easy to do but I didn't have time to get the parts necessary to do it today. Are these things I can do when I detail the boat or is it too late after the engine is full of antifreeze?

Also, is there anything else I'm missing? I thought about fogging the cylinders but read mixed opinions on the forum. It seems they're a pain to get to on my engine as well.

Thanks to everyone who has posted relevant information on this subject before me, it made my day much easier than I originally anticipated. Hopefully my post and pictures will help others out in the future and remind me how to do it next year!

Since you choked out the engine fogging thru carb no need to fog thru plugs IMO (depends on level of MCOCD ... and nice choice on oil... I go for the synthetic personally and cut back a half quart and add HyperLube Zinc Replacement. Based on research I believe is the same technology as Royal Purple's Synerlic, Valvoline's Syn, and Castrol's Edge.

Nice work and nice to see no Fram Filter -

__________________...A bad day water skiing still beats a good day at work...1995 Pro Star 205....

I know there are some steps that I missed like replacing the fuel filter, changing the impeller and cleaning out the water separator. They all seem relatively easy to do but I didn't have time to get the parts necessary to do it today. Are these things I can do when I detail the boat or is it too late after the engine is full of antifreeze?

Also, is there anything else I'm missing? I thought about fogging the cylinders but read mixed opinions on the forum. It seems they're a pain to get to on my engine as well.

Thanks to everyone who has posted relevant information on this subject before me, it made my day much easier than I originally anticipated. Hopefully my post and pictures will help others out in the future and remind me how to do it next year!

When you decide to replace the impeller, if you do it while winterized (meaning its coated in antifreeze instead of water) it slips right out without much trouble at all...having learned this the hard way by fighting with all sorts of tools and tricks to try and extract it mid-season.